Accounting connections
Explain how operating events flow through the income statement, balance sheet and cash-flow statement.
Investment banking · Hong Kong · Singapore · APAC
Investment Banking Interview Prep for Hong Kong and Singapore
Investment banking interview prep should connect accounting, valuation and transaction mechanics instead of treating them as isolated question-bank answers. Build a clear resume walkthrough, motivation, one public deal and one dated market view, then practise the technical follow-ups in English. The goal is to explain why each step works—not simply recall a definition.
Track lead: Former CICC Senior Investment Banking Analyst | IB Interview Lead
Try a question · no account needed
How would you answer?
Choose your interview. Say your answer out loud, then compare the reasoning.
Try the same answer in 15, 45 and 90 seconds. Keep the decision and evidence; change how much detail you include.
Investment Banking
Suppose depreciation rises by $10 and the tax rate is 25%. Walk through the three financial statements, holding everything else constant.
Explain the link between earnings and cash.
Assuming the deduction reduces cash taxes immediately, net income falls $7.50. Add back the extra $10 depreciation in cash flow, so cash rises $2.50. Net PP&E falls $10 and retained earnings fall $7.50. Both sides of the balance sheet fall $7.50.
Check your own answer
- Did I state whether the tax deduction can be used immediately?
- Did I distinguish the earnings impact from the cash impact?
- Did I check that the balance sheet still balances?
Now try the follow-up
What changes if the company cannot use the tax deduction in the current period?
Practise this track in a Mock InterviewThe full Mock Interview runs in English. Its follow-ups and feedback are system-generated.
What to prepare for an investment banking interview
Prioritise a connected answer stack that covers the likely first conversation and still works when the interviewer asks one layer deeper.
Valuation mechanics
Connect enterprise and equity value, trading comparables, precedents and DCF assumptions to the company being discussed.
Transactions and markets
Discuss one public transaction and one current market development with dated facts, interpretation, risks and open questions.
Resume and motivation
Deliver a concise walkthrough and specific answers for banking, the division, the office and the firm without inventing experience.
How the online IB Mock Interview works
The simulation tests whether your technical knowledge, transaction view and personal story connect under follow-up pressure.
Choose your level
Select the investment-banking track, text or voice format and a difficulty appropriate to your current technical baseline.
Answer the connected sequence
Work through English motivation, accounting, valuation, transaction and market questions with follow-ups.
Rebuild the broken link
Use the transcript and system-generated feedback to isolate the mechanism or explanation that failed.
Three preparation mistakes to remove first
- Memorising 400 answers without being able to connect the three statements to value.
- Summarising a deal as news without explaining rationale, price, financing or risk.
- Using the same generic Why banking answer for every division and office.
Continue with investment-banking guides
Use the current role description and interview invitation as the control source for office, division, format, language and timing.